In this weeks Buried Treasure we are talking about a surprisingly fun set of PC games from a Finnish developer Frozenbyte and published by a Canadian company Meridian4. The games are called Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds Survivor, action shooting greatness on a budget.


Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds Survivor to put it simply are top down shooters, similar to that classic arcade PC game from Electronic Arts called Crusader No Remorse or even Segas Alien Syndrom, but better then both on many fronts. Now I say similar because they are top down shooters, with plenty of destruction, shooting and blood, but what Frozenbyte has done is weave in a fun science fiction story, great controls, buckets of blood and some innovative gameplay. All in all, Shadowgrounds and Survivor do what they need to, be a fun set of games and never try to be anything they are not. This is a refreshing duo of games on so many levels, they continue to be a blast to play.

Top down shooters are a common breed, but mostly they lack everything but fairly repetitive gameplay and become boring, this is what the Shadowgrounds do not lack and in fact they do not become boring or repetitive and even on the 3rd play through, the games remained fun and fresh. Although you spend 95 percent of the time shooting, throwing grenades, blowing things up and painting the floors and walls a nice shade of crimson red, the level design, playable characters and basic role-playing elements keeps the fun factor high.


With Shadowgrounds you play a single character, who does his best at work, but seem to be yelled at by his boss. But his bad day just got worse when aliens attack. Now the story for Shadowgrounds is very throw away and most people will not notice or care, because the game is all about the carnage. You blast, shoot, blow up, burn and generally obliterate a host of nasty creatures while trying to figure out what exactly went wrong.

In Shadowgrounds Survivor, there are three characters you play and they are are a cliché of characters we have seen before, a gung-ho marine who uses a pulse rifle, pistol and rocket launcher, a drunk Russian engineer who uses a flame thrower, and shotgun and a female femme fatale sniper who shakes her hips and is a little psychotic, but in a good way as she counts her kills as she blasts aliens with her rail gun, pistol and plasma rifle. In some games cliché characters are bad and show the lack of actual thought and design, but in the case of games similar the Shadowground games, the cliché characters fit with this pure arcade action shooter, if they were not cliché, they would feel wrong.


Through out Survivor, each character is guided by a scientist and this scientist sends them to gather information or get to a key location and perform some task while killing hundreds of aliens all in an attempt to survive long enough to reach New Atlantis, a safe haven, or hopefully a safe haven. But in there way are thousands of aliens of various types, locked doors, laser barriers and some excellent level design to stop them.

The overall level design is in 3D and sometimes you can see down the sides of cliffs or you run down a hill and while this is not new, the design is so well done with buildings, barriers, trees, fences, lava, rocks and more, all mixed with a dark environment with only your flashlight and the muzzle flash of your gun to light up the area. This adds to the fun and tension of the game as the alien hordes might come from any direction, even underground.


With impressive visual effects, Co-op gameplay (same PC only), fast and furious run and gunning, the game reminds us of some old school fun in a new package and for the price you can not go wrong in a game like this. Exploding barrels, exploding aliens, physic effects on almost everything, environmental damage and more, really adds to these games, making it a special treat for any action fan..

You can buy the game off of Steam (www.steampowered.com) and various other online stores for $19.99, a steal of a deal. The original Shadowgrounds is also for purchase on Steam for $9.99 and together these two really make a great deal.

We also have a review of Shadowgrounds Survivor located here.

Posted by Brian Edey (Falelorn)

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